Warner Bros. is a brand name that has been used by several multinational mass media and entertainment companies and corporations, mostly based in the United States, with attributions to Warner Bros. Pictures, a major American film studio founded on April 4, 1923, and the original namesake.
As of 2026 Warner Bros. Discovery owns the motion picture and television assets derived from the original Warner Bros. studio, while the latter's original recorded music arm, Warner Records (formerly known as Warner Bros. Records), now a flagship subsidiary of Warner Music Group, has been independently owned since 2004. Several other former subsidiaries and divisions have been spun off or sold, but they no longer use the Warner or Warner Bros. names.
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Historical overview
The Warner Bros. media conglomerate history began with Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., which was founded on April 4, 1923, by brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack L. Warner, as a replacement for their previous business Warner Features Company, founded in 1910. Jack Warner took full control of the company in 1956. During this time the company forayed into animation (Warner Bros. Cartoons), television (Warner Bros. Television Studios), and music publishing (Warner Bros. Music).
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., merged with Seven Arts Productions in 1967 to form Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Kinney National Company then purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1969 as part of a buying spree that also included National Periodical Publications (predecessor to DC Comics), Television Communications Corporation (predecessor to Time Warner Cable), and Paperback Library (predecessor to Warner Books). After spinning off its non-media assets, Kinney National Company was renamed Warner Communications, which merged with Time Inc. in 1990 to form Time Warner.
In the mid-2000s Time Warner spun off or sold several Warner-derived or branded divisions as independent companies, most notably Warner Music Group (which remains independent as of 2026) and Time Warner Cable (later acquired by Charter Communications), while Warner Books was sold to Hachette Livre. During this time Time Warner's film and television assets were incorporated into a new Warner Bros. Entertainment subsidiary on December 3, 2002.
Time Warner, much reduced in scope at this point, was acquired by AT&T on June 15, 2018, and renamed WarnerMedia. AT&T then spun off and sold WarnerMedia to Discovery, Inc., to form Warner Bros. Discovery on April 8, 2022.
List of entities derived from Warner Bros.
The following entities have used the Warner name and have been derived from or affiliated with the original Warner Bros. Pictures studio.
The film studio:
History of Warner Bros. Pictures (1923–1967)
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967–1969)
Warner Bros. Pictures (1969–present)
Animation studios:
Warner Bros. Cartoons (1929–1963)
Warner Bros. Animation (1980–present)
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation (2013–present)
Television studio:
Warner Bros. Television Studios (1955–present)
Corporate parents:
WarnerMedia, previously known as Warner Communications, the first iteration of Time Warner, Time Warner Entertainment, AOL Time Warner, and the second iteration of Time Warner (1972–2022)
Warner Bros. Discovery (2022–present)
Warner Bros. Entertainment, subsidiary corporation (2002–present)
Subsidiaries that were spun off:
Warner Music Group
Warner Records, previously known as Warner Bros. Records